ancestry.com migraine....

[Joshua]

My biggest headache w/Ancestry.com is that when you discover a lead is "bad" (i.e. someone else/you goofed up and added a non-relative) it doesn't delete the link if that link was to several persons...


I've deleted/recreated a dozen trees because of this.

I'm pretty much stuck. My dad was adopted by his maternal-side uncle, so I never knew my paternal grandparents (nor did I adopt their surname, Trott). Fortunately, my father's biological father had 12 other children, and two of them have cross-linked family trees that are well substantiated by the census, marriage, birth, and death records. I've actually tracked down further on that side, than I have the people I actually grew up with and knew my whole life. By that avenue, I've got a German GG-Grandmother, and a Scottish GGG-Grandmother (Urquhart). Unfortunately the patrilineal line stops in Baltimore for the "Trott" surname... problem is that "Trott" can be German, French, Irish, or British. My dad always told me it was German - but he could be referring to the GG-Grandmother with the surname "Spaht".

Sorry for the rant/hijack, but as you can tell - I've got my own Ancestry.com headaches.

[MacBean]

My biggest headache w/Ancestry.com is that when you discover a lead is "bad" (i.e. someone else/you goofed up and added a non-relative) it doesn't delete the link if that link was to several persons...

100% agreement. Whoever invents a web application that allows correcting and additing information with verifiable sources will corner the market in the ancestry business. Ancestry.com does approach that as far as it allows others to see any tree you create along with any evidence you post.

[bdkilted]

I gave up on Ancestry.com years ago. They always seem to have something close, but no direct link to any of my line. I have had the most progress by finding people in the geographical area that I needed to look, who mentioned on social networking sites that they were into geneology, and asking them for help. Most are willing to do a quick search in the records they have available to them for free. One nice lady in Aberdeenshire, Scotland was able to find where my g-g-grandfather lived for me. Now, I just have to get back to the UK to continue the search myself.
Good luck with the quest, I know it can be frustrating.
BD

[MacBean]

Many Americans here have Scots ancestry, and most of those pre-date the revolution. I'd estimate that I probably have 100-500 direct ancestors from circa 1730. I may be able to find some of those, but the majority will never be known. I cannot really ever know my roots, no matter where I was born. For this, and many other, reasons, ancestry is still an uncertain platform for identity.

Those who know they are true Scots (and Highlanders to boot), wouldn't have to delve back very far before they found holes in that ancestral heritage. So perhaps their identity is based on where they were born, or where they live, or the cultural tradition in which they were raised. These are all pretty fluid as well. That's a liberating thought, as we are then free to assume identity at will; it's something we can actively create.

The key to being American, is that we are intentionally creating identity rather than assuming one passed down by tradition and heritage. It is difficult for those not born here to realize this about Americans (and not all Americans would have thought about it enough to agree with me).

That said, I've enjoyed a bit of genealogy myself!

[Gael Ridire]

Yes you have a headache! You can trace back your ancestry with nearly 100% fact, but...you must go one generation at a time using primary source documents: birth, marriage, death certificates, wills, land records, baptismal records, military records, etc. The message boards, pedigrees, LDS website, are excellent guides to help one to often cut through the haze, but DO NOT accept the data listed as fact! Which has been mentioned. And sometimes these primary source records can contain false data too, especially death certificates. One of the biggest helps is the Federal census records for tracing a family's movements, but often the data it contains is not 100% fact. Also spelling of surnames are not important till late 1800s. I have an ancestor where his surname is spelled four different ways in his will that he signed. Good luck!

[tripleblessed]

LDS records are often (not always by any stretch) hearsay at best, family story type files. May or may not have any shred of anything to back them up. In other words, like virtually every other info on the web. Trust me, it's true, you're reading it here and now,on the web, so I must be right. Right? Of course. Many DO have birth or christening certification, marriage license,
etc., just triple-check as always.

Keep going back to those you've covered, more stuff comes online every day.
We've spent years looking for more than christening on my ggg-grandfather
from Kingoldrum, Angus. First record this side was 1790 census and land records. Idly googled yet again recently, and found a reprint of court records
of him testifying about procuring supplies for Loyalist and British troops near
his home in Robeson County, NC. Everyone in family excited.

Have fun!

[tripleblessed]

Apologies for posting two in a row, but just thought of something. We had
two brothers born in VA and their sons, born in NC, in Wilkes County, GA
by 1773, all served, land grants. Nothing on the rest of the family. Couple of weeks ago, looking for a possible burial site for them, tried the Sons of the American Revolution site. Nothing on them, but in Wilkes a photo of a Service
headstone for possibly another brother. Right age, VA connection. Nothing
further yet. Go everywhere. Look at anything. Others in the family have all
the paid sites, yet I keep finding new stuff with sweat equity.

Again, have fun!

[ForresterModern]

Big problem in our patrilineal line as listed in Ancestry.com. Seems like there were two gentlemen, not directly related in any known fashion, that lived in adjacent counties of Virginia at virtually the same time, who were both named William Foster and titled "the Elder" by each of their prolifically descendant families. They have both been written about extensively by at least one or more members of their descendants in the last century. Unfortunately their lines of ancestry are distinclty separate, but I cannot count the number of times I have seen Ancestry.com listings with their offspring either listed as being from the same father but two different mothers sequentially, or intermingled in a variety of ways, completely muddling the average human's ability to trace them back further accurately. Finally spoke to one of the in-depth researchers who definitely verified that my William Foster ancestor was not the same as his, although aomewhat more was known about his ancestor's predecessors, part of which even he agreed was likely wrong. My William was from a different county of both birth and life, and I subsequently found references to a George Foster (my William's father) in Northumberland county and another location, completely separate from the other line's history which was at least well documented at the same period of time. Still working on finding out more about George, his life, land holdings, and parentage---more time to spend in old Virginia county records offices and such, as nothing seems to come up online anywhere.

On a high note, I did last weekend get to the part of Virginia where my William the Elder held two land grants, saw the areas of the two parcels as well as the oldest house on the property, still known to this day as Fostern Estates. Did not, however get to walk the land to where I believe a family and adjacent slave cemetary are located. Must contact landowner and request permission, as my cousin, who lives nearby, says folks in that part of Virginia shoot first and ask questions of strangers on their property later. Did not anticipate needing to wear any Kevlar as part of my geneology project.

[MacBean]

I can relate to the problem of having two of the same name in the same region and time. I may have three, no one's quite sure. Or maybe we're all mixed up. I think this is an excellent use for y-chromosome DNA work do untangle lines if you can find any male descendents with the name.

[Lyle1]

I think Ancestry.com is a remarkable source of information, but as with all research, you must be wary of what you accept to be true! Access to public records in an indexed format that can be searched rather than browsed, is outstanding, and they are always adding more. I am suspicious of local histories and family histories (particularly those written about 1900), but they can be a great source of names and locations that should then be verified independently.

The public trees are also helpful if you check to see if the data is documented or verify the information yourself. People copy from other trees indiscriminately, then other people copy the same mistakes over and over, again. My favorite was one of my Scottish lines back in the 1300's where someone repeated the information, including the dates) for about four generations in the middle of the line (i.e., 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,3,4,5,6,7,8,9). I found this error copied to about twenty trees, and this was for a fairly well documented, noble family, for whom it was easy to verify information.